Saturday 22 March

Today is unusually quiet in the Compound.  The school has broken for a week long vacation and most people have already left the Kingdom along with many from across Riyadh.  It was almost impossible to get a flight to Dubai or Abu Dhabi if you had left your booking until last week.  Julie and I looked for a flight for Ron's driver as we were (mistakenly) under the impression that he couldn't even get a bus ticket for the 13 hour journey to Dubai to see his wife and child.  When searching for available flights we found flights that took 20 hours - Riyadh, Qatar, Hong Kong, Dubai - when a direct flight takes just over 1 1/2 hours.  Falah did have a bus ticket, but was worried that he couldn't use it because it was due to leave the same time as he was supposed to be taking Ron and Julie to the airport.  Once this was resolved, he was very happy with the prospect of seeing his 11 month old daughter and his wife by this morning.

The drivers, nannies, maids and cleaners get a pretty rough deal here.  I suspect it is no different to other countries across the Middle East.  They often work 7 days a week sending home money to family and existing on limited income.  We are in the position of being able to pay the drivers additional money when we use them outside their usual work commitments - and most of us are generous in the additional money.  Falah gets very embarrassed when we pay for these excursion, but accepts when we say it is to put aside for Lehan (his daughter).  For us he is protective and provides us with a sense of security as well as the obvious freedom of mobility around the city.  Not that the city is unsafe at all, but  he has a strong sense of looking out for us wherever we go - and that's in addition to driving in a city where road rules seem to be just suggestion for individuals to consider when and if they wish.

Falah is from Yemen.  He has been in Riyadh for 6 years, 4 years with the school.  He is the youngest in a family of 5 children.  His older brothers and sisters completed their education, but his was interrupted with the death of his father. He had wanted to study physiotherapy at university, but instead had to work as the money was no longer available.  He has a sister living in the US whose daughter is at university there and a nephew who is a doctor working in China.  I'm not sure of the other family members, because the limited language between us also limits the accurate exchange of information.  He wants to leave the Middle East within 3-5 years to provide better opportunities for his daughter - particularly education.  His wife, also from Yemen but born in Dubai, works for the Ministry of Finance in Dubai.  Her father is a policeman.  Their marriage was arranged and they exchanged emails and phone calls (plus Skype) for a year before marrying in 2012.  He adores her and his daughter who he is seeing for only the second time since she was born last April.  Technology is a blessing for him, and others who's families are in other countries, as he Skypes each day and talks to his daughter via the phone screen or laptop.

Falah and Julie (he no longer has the 'pot' due to his daily walk with us & weekly soccer game.

A few weeks ago one of the Team - Sue Cook - and I flew to Dubai for the weekend.  Julie was in Dubai at a Job Fair, so we thought we'd head over the same weekend, but enjoy the time having a look around.  I couldn't believe the benefit of being away for just 2 days.  It was fantastic.  Dubai is incredibly modern, but also prides itself on being clean and organised (to the point of neurotic).  It aims to have everything you could possibly want - the biggest shopping malls in the world, public transport, modern and complex freeways, tourist attractions - every new extravaganza bigger and brighter than the previous.  You may well know much of this having visited yourself.  I'm glad I have been - and would probably go again to see some sights I didn't see this time, but it was a bit like the Gold Coast on steroids.

We were upgraded in our hotel to a suite each.  Very nice indeed.  The first difficulty was locating the hidden fridge and working out how to turn off the numerous lights.  Disappointed that I didn't enjoy the enormous bath for a relaxing hour or so, but never had the time.

Here are some of the pictures:

The Atlantis Dubai - located on the out edge of the man-made Palm Islands.

The Burj Al Arab.  Reputed to be 7 star (but self rated).  It's off the coast and access by private bridge or water taxi - or helicopter.  You might recall Federer & Nadal playing tennis on the helipad - visible here near the top towards camera

Sculptors of divers in front of a waterfall at the Dubai Mall.  The water fall is about 30 metres wide - this is only a small part of it.

The tallest building in the world - Burj Khalifa - 829.8m.  - 160 floors 

Part of the old 'creek' where the village originally settled.

Of course the other attraction to Dubai was no compulsory abaya wearing and enjoying an alcoholic drink or two or …

On Monday I am flying to another Emirate - Abu Dhabi.  Peter is flying in from Melbourne, arriving Tuesday morning, and we are heading to the Empty Quarter to a very upmarket resort.  Time to celebrate the near conclusion of my Contract here.  AND I get to drive the 2 hours to the resort and back.  We will enjoy a couple of nights in this location and enjoy some traditional activities, including falconing, camel riding and walking into the sand dunes at dusk and enjoying the amazing scenery.  I'm led to believe the resort appears to be similar (or actually is) to the one in the second Sex in the City film.   The Empty Quarter spans UAE, part of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is just empty.  Now there is some oil drilling and associated occupation, but it will really be 'out in the desert'.  We are staying at Anantara Qasr Al Sarab Desert if you want to Google it or check it out on Trip Advisor. We will then head back to Abu Dhabi and stay there (in a more modest hotel) for a couple of nights, flying out in different directions on Saturday night.

Then I return to school for my final four weeks.

Our first week back will be taken up with a Review Team.  The school Board originally commissioned BCG for the renewal project and they prepared 16 projects for regeneration of the school - Restoring the Glory.  The number of projects has grown to 26 and all evidence pertaining to each project was collated, sorted, filed and presented in bulging arch folders - one for each project (well two for some).  A team will be in the Kingdom for 8 days, 6 in the school.  Darrell Fraser and Di Peck will be part of the Team.  It is interesting that much of the Review doesn't reflect any similarity to a school review at home, more a pulse check on a business.  In fact, Ron has pushed more of the 'educational' projects to prominence to maintain an educational focus on the Review Team.

So I guess my next Blog may well be my last from here.  I will be very sad to leave, but more than ready to go home.  Many have already left, some because of family situations, others because of career opportunities and others because they couldn't live so far away in a very different culture.  Sue left on Thursday and I will miss her greatly, but will see her not long after going home - in part because i freighted a box to her place and will need to collect it!

Stay well - and see you at the May Races.

Friday 7 February

Back in Riyadh and time to write an update from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

I arrived back in Riyadh a little over a week ago and have had the HEATER on for the first time since coming here.  Yesterday was only 16!  In fact each night this week I have pulled on a warm woollen jumper after our daily walk because the nights have been very cool.  Made a mistake though last night, forgot to turn off the heater before heading to bed and woke this morning very warm and thirsty.

I left home on 22 January and went to Toronto, Canada, for a Job Fair for the school.  This was my second Fair, so I had a much better idea of what to do, how to prepare and how to maximise candidates for interview.  I was meeting a colleague, Kif Khan, and together we hoped to have success in recruiting.

You may recall that we had some pretty hot weather mid-January (days of 40+) and then I left for what seemed another planet.  It generally peaked at -14C during the days in Toronto and we did experience days with top temperature of -17C.

Now I have only experienced snow a few times in my life (2 x in Victoria, ignoring a day in 1982 when it snowed - sleeted - near Warrnambool for about 30-40 minutes) and the only other time was on a trip to Europe in 1979/80, but don't recall it actually snowing, just that we saw lots of snow on the ground in some parts.  This time in Toronto it actually snowed (without being windy) whilst i was walking on several occasions. It was beautiful, but damn cold.  I have to say that I cursed having to take clothes for the cold weather, but they served me well.  I highly recommend possum wool for such weather conditions.  I had hat, gloves and socks and I was snug - along with a warm coat and jumper - and didn't regret not wearing more.  The photos below are of those few days.

The Harbour Toronto - the white is frozen lake

Barney belonged to Film Director (Moonstruck) and this memorial includes a tap & bowl for other dogs

Niagara Falls (Canadian side)

Looking across to the US

from my hotel room - last morning

at Toronto airport just after stepping out of taxi 

Whilst Toronto was lovely and the people were extremely friendly and the drivers always courteous, we didn't have the success with candidates as we had hoped.  Unknown to us, the Kingdom had changed some conditions for ex-pat workers, including professionals, that impacted on our options for offering jobs.  Women with family can no longer sponsor children or husbands to come to Saudi Arabia !  Kif and I were really disappointed as we had just made an offer to an excellent teacher of high school English, who is married and has a 2 year old.  She was perfect having worked in Egypt for 5 years (over two placements), married an Egyptian, spoke a bit of Arabic, Muslim and great teacher.  She questioned us initially about bring family as she had a 'trailing spouse'.  The term was new to us, but we were informed by her, and later others, that the other Saudi schools were asking this question.  We weren't enlightened until the next day.  So much for promoting the school as a great place to work and that Riyadh is safe and pleasant to live - now we have to inform them that family can only be brought into the country on 60 day visas.

This place takes steps forward and then retreats.  This is the dilemma of two conflicting parts of government one managed by the royal family which is progressive and one by the conservative religious organisation that doesn't want any progress or involvement with the wider world.

Anyway - arrived back to Riyadh and school and was made to feel extremely welcome immediately.  I appreciate that the warmness in the welcome is in part a cultural response to those who have been away, but genuinely feel that some of the women were really pleased to see me back and recommence our work together.  I will be working with the leaders in the two high schools (international and national curriculum streams) along with mentoring our new English Academic Leader.

This is my final placement and I hope I can reflect back positively on the role I have played in the school's regeneration program.  The tension has always been, and continues to be, that the reforms we are trying to instigate are massive and our time is relatively short.  What the school embeds into their ongoing practice is debatable, but certainly the Professional Learning Teams that have been set up and lead by Instructional Leaders by subject and school, have continued in our absence and teachers look to them for their collegiate support and learning.  Some from the Team will leave by mid year, others will conclude their contract at the end of the year (January 2015) and a small team will remain for a further year - largely to support the ongoing technology implementation.  Ron's contract also continues beyond this year.

Well off to another Shopping Mall this afternoon …

Friday 18 October

All is very quiet around the Compound.  It is the Eid Al Adha - a ten day period where Muslim pilgrims from across the world to undertake the Hajj.  This is one of the five pillars of Islam and should be undertaken at least once in every Muslim's life if possible.  The other pillars are:  Only one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet; pray five times a day; fast during the month of Ramadan; and, give to the poor.

With several million people coming into the country, along with about 600 000 Saudi's this year going to Makkah for the Hajj, it is an opportunity for as many of the remaining to leave the country, including Saudis.  Our entire Team have taken the opportunity and have been (or still are) enjoying sights across Europe (Rome, Berlin, Greek Islands and Athens), Gulf States (Dubai & Qatar), Turkey, Maldives Islands and some have gone home for their time.

I have been able to meet Peter in Sri Lanka.  When planning this little adventure, we looked at a map and thought that India & Sri Lanka seemed about 1/2 way.  Well perhaps the way the crow flies, but whilst it was only a 5 1/2 hour (direct) flight for me, Peter had to fly via Singapore and add the 3 hours to and from Melbourne - so I got the better deal.  But our week in this magical island was wonderful. One week certainly isn't nearly enough time to see the diversity of scenery nor learn very much about the history.  We used a tourist company, who planned and booked everything for us, including gorgeous accommodation.  We had a driver for the entire trip, who would adjust the planned itinerary as we requested.

We saw the tea country towards the centre of the island, the lovely old port city of Galle and its beautiful Fort Galle, first built by the Portuguese, then administered by the Dutch for 150 years before the British ruled for the next 150 years prior to the countries independence in 1948.  We fell in love with Galle - particularly the Fort and spent an extra 3 - 4 hours roaming around the stone streets explore the architecture added with each dominant country.  The Fort is a complex mix of nationalities having being home to trader for 100s, if not 1000s of years.  The Fort was relatively unscathed from the shocking tsunami in 2004 due to its natural protection from rocky reefs and the high walls built to withstand attacks of a more manmade kind.  However the city outside the walls lost 2500 people and 1000s more up and down the coastland.  Many apparently were trapped after escaping the first wave and returning to the city to view the devastation only to be caught by a second wave 1 hour after the first.  The beautiful Galle Cricket Ground immediately outside the Fort's Gates was completely ruined, but once again hosts international games in this magical setting.

We travelled onto Colombo for one day - and went to the old centre of the city - the fort area, again built by the Portuguese, rebuilt by the Dutch and then remodelled by the British.  In both Galle and Colombo, the tour company arranged for us to do a walking tour with authors/photographers.  The woman in Fort Galle (Juliet Coombe) had arrived post tsunami as a photo-journalist for the Murdoch papers and has stayed. She married a local (her guide and interpreter for that work) and now writes, publishes and researchers the local area and its people.  The guide in Colombo, Mark Forbes, grew up on a tea plantation and now tries to focus on his photography and taking groups on walking tours, city and more energetic hiking trips in the high country and wilderness areas.  He identified himself as a Heinz - 57 varieties - that is of mixed heritage, Sri Lankan, Indian, Scottish and Irish.  Both provided an added dimension to our trip, providing not only local insights to the locality, but also shared their passion for the country and its future.

Rothschild Tea Plantation. Just a lovely old factory that still uses its original machinery to produce the tea.

On the battlements of Galle Fort with the higher gun area behind.

Galle Cricket Ground as viewed from the Fort

Soon to be Raffles Hotel - a gorgeous old department store, now almost abandoned.

Mother and calf at a great Elephant Orphanage.

The other excitement from this location was that we had a long weekend late September.  This is the only long weekend of the year and wasn't actually granted until 3 days before the actual weekend in question.  The holiday was for the Kingdom's National Day, which this year fell on a Monday.  Now our weekend consists of Friday and Saturday, so whilst we all knew that Monday would be a public holiday, the whole country speculates that the King will grant the Sunday as an additional holiday.  So on that basis we all booked a weekend away.  I and another 3 of our team, went to Cyprus.  This was just divine - and we could drink AND I could drive!  We had booked the trip weeks before and spent hours trawling through possible accommodation possibilities before finding an old stone villa in a village above the sea and away from the touristy coast.  It was excellent.  Plenty of time spent reading, sleeping and then only venturing 'down the hill' for dinner of an evening.  We didn't see much of Cyprus (though more than intended when we headed north from collecting the hire car, instead of west) and the beach is nothing compared to even the poorest beaches at home, we had a wonderful weekend.

Would go back if for no other purpose than to enjoy this lovely villa again and village life in a quiet part of the country.  That said, the locals are doing it really tough - lost 50% of their deposits in the bank - no exceptions, can't take more than 300 Euro ($425) out of the bank on a day or 1000 Euro ($1416) a month.  Many retired Brits have purchased a house and live in Cyprus permanently on retirement, but they can't sell as they can't get the money out.  But the previous government - Communist apparently - built an excellent highway system.

The Gate to the villa's walled garden

The balcony with distant views to the Mediterranean 

School continues with its joys, wins and challenges.  It is never dull and those we work with remain generous and enthusiastic about the work that lays ahead.  It remains difficult to work to build classroom practice, when most teachers haven't any teacher/educational training.  The students are largely compliant and if they are bored they generally aren't disruptive of the class.  Of course there are the 'naughty' students, but very mild compared to what we are used to at home.  However the practice of separating boys and girls form Grade One is ridiculous.  Boys remain on the 'Girls Side' for Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2, then they move to the 'boys' side of the school.  The boys Grade 1 & 2 classes are hard work.  Add to the mix of mischievous, excitable young children, a grade of boys who are wealthy, expected to be indulged, spoilt and not reprimanded and you have a class that is tricky!

Home by around 24 November - so see you for Christmas Drinks!

Friday 13 September

Welcome to another letter of aimless observations and ponderings from here in the middle of the Middle East.  My biggest trial at anytime in adding to this post - is trying to bring it up without Arabic Script across the top for instructions.  The ridiculous part is that I can never recall how I accomplished it the previous time.  But enough of alerting you to my growing dementia ...

We are all looking anxiously forward to next weekend.  The Saudi National Day falls on Monday 23 September and as our first day of the working week is Sunday, it is expected that the King will announce that Sunday is a holiday making a long weekend. Virtually everyone in our team has booked and paid for a trip out of the country, including the boss who is travelling with us to Cyprus.  The only problem is if the King doesn't announce the holiday.  But then he may not make the announcement until the evening before.  So after asking many Saudi teachers and Ron (the boss) asking his deputy, we  will all be away.

Cyprus will be excellent - weather looking very good with tops of 32 and evenings of 20.  Positively mild.  We are renting an old farm villa set into the hills overlooking the sea in the south (Greek Cyprus).  I've hired a car for the four of us - a 7 seater VW something that isn't a Kombi - and as the booking is in my name, I'm driving.  Really looking forward to that simple task.  On the way home from work one afternoon this week, our driver pointed out to the car we were passing - a young boy around 10 was driving a large 4 wheel drive (GMC) - his father was proudly sitting beside him.  And they don't let women drive!

Ron received a visit from 2 Year 12 boys (brothers) who invited him and the male consultants to dinner at their home.  The boys had come to school that day in a red 4 wheel drive Lexus.  That afternoon they met the men from our team outside our Compound in a white Maserati.  Ron was offered the courtesy of driving it, but refused.  The other men weren't offered the privilege.  Ron's disappointment though was that he travelled with his own driver (in the his Lexus) to the young boys home which was less than 1km from here.

On arriving they were shown to a very large reception room full of art (paintings and sculptures) and served tea and coffee and dates.  Later they moved to another enormous room for dinner - again filled with art, where 2 other brothers joined them.  Around 9pm the boys father arrived home and welcomed them to his house.  They never met the women in the house - 4 sisters and presumably at least one wife/mother.  This family are seriously rich.  The boys travel to Europe independently of the family to ski, dive, swim, sight see and shop.  They intend to study overseas next year and are keen to improve their English from competent to that of an academic standard.

The wealth of the families at the school is interesting.  All families would be considered wealthy from our perspective, but some of the families (not including the royals) are wealthy beyond my comprehension.  The Saudi teachers who work in the school, some who hold senior positions including principal positions, spend huge amounts of money on jewellery, watches, shoes, handbags and travel.  It is not unusual to sit with this women over the period of a week, and see several different designer handbags (Channel, Dior, Fendi) all several thousand dollars each, plus shoes to match and different huge diamond rings daily.  Whilst there isn't any tax here, the cost of such items is still big.  It is the males responsibility to look after his family (or families) and even after divorce, he would be responsible for the children - who often remain with him.

The school work is progressing - slowly.  Though when we look at the changes from last year when we commenced, the impact of our work is rewarding.  We have commenced work with the new level of leaders - all new positions - which involves building their capacity and understanding of leadership as well as their curriculum and teaching knowledge.  It seems that many of these people - women and men - have become intoxicated with their title and barking orders and making demands of others and not actually doing their work.  So the next piece of work is to gently remind them that they are not the boss and that they need to stop with the coffee and dates and get out and work.

One of the new leaders - a Syrian English teacher - who I work with in the National HS was telling me that the problem is Saudis.  They are lazy and they don't live the life that Mohammed instructed them to do.  That is: rise before sunrise and pray, then work hard throughout the day and go to sleep after the final prayer just after sunset.  Saudis generally get home from school around 2:30 when they would eat and then sleep for 4 -5 hours (children included) and then do some tasks around the house and go out for dinner around 10pm.  They may well stay out until 1am (with children) and then back to home and bed and up for the day around 5am.  She said the only time Saudis live as The Prophet instructed was when they were living or holidaying in the West because the shops, businesses and restaurants dictate a different time pattern to their day.  It sits with our observations - this country could be a major player in the world if they would just get organised.  Some are trying to take the country to the next level of success beyond money, but many aren't coming with them.  Many don't need to work because of the wealth from oil.  But their hospitality remains their best attribute.

Did I share with you the visit of the rats?  We finally think we are rid of all vermin.  Last week getting ready to leave for the car to head to work, a look of horror crossed Julie's face and she screamed. I turned to where she was looking fully expecting to see another large adult rat somewhere on the floor in the kitchen, but instead it was a dead baby rat.  (Picture below).  I put it into TWO plastic bags and took it to the  Gatehouse and showed the staff there the photo and then pointed to the bag.  The manager came and assured me that all rats would be looked for and removed from our villa.  Apparently 4 men were set this task and they didn't find any rats.  When we arrived home they had to put the dishwasher back into place.  When they were doing this we noticed a hole made into the wall for the hose to the dishwasher.  The dishwasher was new for our villa and so was the hole.  I grabbed some scourers and cut them up and had the worker stuff them around the hole - much to his amusement.  A large rat trap, similar to a possum trap, was left in our kitchen set and ready to catch anything wild.  Nothing has appeared and neither have new evidence of rats!!!

This is a rat - not a mouse.  For those who are interested, note the white banded tail!

Over the past 3 weeks I have been joining Julie and Ron on their walk around the Diplomatic Quarter (DQ).  The walk we do is about 8km and we can now do it in 1:05 with a 5 minute break in the middle.  The walk is damn hard of an afternoon, when the temperature maybe about 43.  But we finish at Starbucks for a huge freshly squeezed orange juice.  The mornings of the weekend are far more pleasant - this morning the temperature being 33.  The photos below are around our walking route.  Ron's driver, Falah - a beautiful young man from Yemin - walks with us to stop getting fat!  I didn't take photographs of the army security stations around the walk as I thought that may be too sensitive.  But we pass about 2 locations on the walk where there is a fortified machine gun post and outlook.  The DQ is well protected with army on the entrance in and each vehicle checked before entering.  A huge wall surrounds the area - not sure how large but probably about 200 acres - and barbed and razor wire above the wall.  

Almost 1/2 way.  the structure to the left is the remains of an old mud fort.

Julie and Falah.  Note the tea towels.  We wrap them wet around the bottles of water and put them in the freezer for 40 mins.  Very welcomed at the break

Prince Salmen's Palace - our Compound (unseen) is to the right.

Edge of the DQ

Saturday 24 August 2013

Hi - back again for Placement #3.  I'm half way through this contract now and therefore Riyadh is becoming quite familiar.  Sitting in the car heading back to our Compound after being met by Ahmed - one of our drivers - everything felt  commonplace.  (I was going to say driving from the airport the morning I flew in - but that might give the impression that I was driving, which would not only be inaccurate, but illegal).  As we turned into our street, I felt a sense of calm with the recognisable street-scape, even though it was 3:45am!  But the calmness probably came as a result of the very stressful preceding three hours.

I arrived in Dubai from Melbourne (travelling Qantas Premium Economy - poor man's Business Class - nice though) and had a short time to travel from one terminal to another - using excellent underground train shuttle.  I hadn't long sat down with my orange juice and my flight was called for boarding.  I made my way to the Gate Lounge and lined up with the other passengers.  I handed the ground staff my Boarding Pass and my Exit/Entry Visa for Saudi Arabia.  He looked worried, had another look at the letter and then checked again.  My letter was the one I used in March and therefore out of date.  My current one was somewhere - perhaps on my desk in Warrnambool, perhaps long since found the recycle rubbish.  He told me this and my heart sank.  I showed him my Iqama (work permit card), told him where I worked and he became very helpful.  He looked online and my current visa was there and he gave me the number and let me through but with a warning that I was on my own if I was questioned about this on arrival in Riyadh.  The entire flight and the hour long wait at Immigration at the airport in Riyadh, I didn't know if I wanted to be ill, cry or just be optimistic.  Good fortunes prevailed. I informed the Guard at Immigration that somewhere since getting on the plane in Dubai and this arrival hall, I had lost my Exit/Entry letter, BUT i have the number.  Showed him the number, he punched a computer and through I went!  During that hour wait - not unusual in this country when arriving for Immigration - Ahmed had phoned twice to check that I had arrived and later to check that I had arrived at King Khalid airport because I was taking so long to get through.

The next couple of days was spent catching up with the rest of the Australian Team who had arrived before me, and greeting those who came in over the following days.  Back at school was wonderful.  We have all been greeted very warmly, and traditionally - 3-5 kisses on the right check and then a warm embrace.  This greeting applies equally to the men.  It also feels right to be working again after such a long break.  In fact my memory is improving quickly - I was secretly worried that I was getting a touch of dementia when I struggled to remember names and places for the morning Age Quiz at breakfast with Peter.

The downside of the return is the construction next to our Compound.  It has continued and structure is growing - apartments.  Though the jackhammering has recommenced - 2m from my window and now 14m below!  The blessing is that they don't start until 6:00am which is about the time we leave for work, and they finish their day around 4:00pm which is close to the time we arrive home.  However there is Saturday.  All is quiet on Friday as the  Islamic Prayer day, but this morning the march (of only 5 bulldozers with jackhammers) commenced I was up and readying the drinks and small backpack for a walk around the Diplomatic Quarter.

The construction of the new Compound outside my bedroom.
You can see 3 of the bulldozers with the jackhammers between the 2 buildings.
The greenery in the background is the Crown Prince's Palace.  If you look carefully you
might see 2 light-towers poking above the trees - that's he's soccer pitch.

Today was my 4th walk and I'm getting better and faster.  Ben & Ron walked this morning and both like to walk fast - so I made a big effort to keep their pace, though they are both over 6' and I'm short! But we finished in 75mins, so not too bad.  Keep in mind that it is HOT - probably 36 degrees at that time of the morning.  This walk is about 8km and being in the DQ means women aren't required to wear an abaya - which means we can wear gym gear like the men.
We finish at Starbucks and I have enjoyed a huge orange juice each time.  There is a time when American supersizing all foods and beverages has an advantage.

At work the teachers are spending this two weeks in technology training. The school is moving to a 1:1 device for all students.  Students in Grades 1-6 will each have an iPad whilst the older students will each have a laptop.  With that commitment the demand is on the teachers to be able to incorporate technology into their lessons.  The school has also installed 100 interactive whiteboards with another 100 to be installed later this year.  I have some professional/pedagogical difficulty with the demand of the ICT team insisting that all lessons have a technology component - but choose to ignore that at this stage.

We have also welcomed about 16 new teachers who have been recruited from various Job Fairs (London, San Francisco, Toronto) to teach English and provide models for local teachers to observe - particularly in the kindergarten and elementary schools.  Some of the new teachers are living in our Compound and some are in another location, referred to as community villas as there isn't the additional external wall and national guard presence that we have here, but very nice and comfortable and only 3km from the school.

For the first time the elementary schools are introducing a home teacher who will teach English and Maths to their class.  There aren't enough of these teachers yet so the international elementary school is commencing this model in Grades 1 & 2.  Previously the students have a different teacher for each subject - as they would in high school.  Another new component to the regeneration project is that the international schools in elementary and high school will have all instruction in English with the exception of the 3 Saudi compulsory subjects: Holy Qur'an, Arabic and Saudi History.

Haven't done anything new in Riyadh at this stage - but only being here 10 days.  I have been shopping though!  Yesterday Sue and I took some of the new arrivals to a home centre to help furnish their villas (sheets, towels, pillows, kitchen items additional to what is supplied and stuff), and then met them at a nearby mall.  Great sales on at the moment.  I got a beautiful DKNY silk dress for less than half price (It was a BARGAIN Peter!).  It was interesting to realise that seeing all women in black, 90% of them with their faces covered with the exception of a narrow opening around their eyes (though some cover the face completely with a fabric that they can see through), was no longer strange or unusual.

Havent any new photos of Riyadh, so here is one I took earlier ... some of the grandchildren.

Reuben (2), Audrey(4) and Jude (4mths).  Two redheads!
Reuben doesn't always wear a headband but put it on when it was discarded by Audrey in
preference to her crown.

Friday 19 April

The past weeks have been particularly busy.  We began a week's break on 21 March for the mid-semester.  I flew to Bahrain where I met Peter who was flying in from Australia.  We spent 3 days in Bahrain, largely to finalise his visa for Saudi Arabia.  This had been a long, torturous and stressful process.  I had commenced the process 4 weeks earlier and following a number of we will have your husbands visa number tomorrow - Inshallah, and a visit to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, we learned that Ron (my boss) and I didn't have our iqamas registered with Foreign Affairs or Immigration (which I'm not sure).  This meant that we couldn't sponsor anyone for a visitors visa. Ron was trying to bring his son for a visit and of course Peter had his ticket bought and paid for and was arriving in 6 days.  The schools Deputy Director General, Abdulrahman got into action.  He phoned a friend who is now a Saudi Ambassador somewhere in Africa, but who was formerly the head of this Ministry.  Phone calls were made and I ended up with Peter's visa number the last day of school - 3 days before his arrival!  [Ron and I - and the others whose iqamas weren't registered - have properly register iqamas now]

However the saga didn't quite conclude then.  We enjoyed a lovely day wandering around the streets and markets near the hotel on the Saturday, waiting for the weekend to finish and get to the Saudi Embassy to get the visa before heading to Jordan.  Unlike Saudi, Bahrain follows the neighbouring UAE and Qatar states and has a weekend of Friday and Saturday.  (Saudi is Thursday & Friday).  So Sunday morning we were at the Agent with visa number in had and passports.  Then the request for passport photos was asked of Peter - who had not brought any!  A quick run to the street and locating a taxi to get to a photo shop, get photos and back to the Agent before 9:00am.  It was now 8:30.  The next bit of information - unwanted - was that shops don't open until 9:00am.  However our driver took on our task and drove about until an open shop was found.  Peter was groomed by the photographer - unnecessarily really as he didn't look any different - and the shots were taken.  Then he took an extraordinary time to upload photos, select, crop and eventually print the photos.  Then he began laboriously cutting them up to passport size.  Once 2 were done, I grabbed them and scooped up the rest and we ran to our waiting taxi.  Somehow, despite several red lights along the way, we got back to the Agent by 9:05 and the Embassy official hadn't arrived to collect the waiting visas for process.  We handed over documents and then they requested our marriage certificate.  Peter had suggested a week earlier that i take this document with us just in case.  Thankfully I listened this time...  The rest of the day we enjoyed sights of Bahrain including the Mosque, ancient city sights, an ancient fort and museum.  Later we collected the passport with KSA visa fixed and readied ourselves for Jordan the next day.

Jordan was great.  Our initial walk around the streets near the hotel was disappointing and we thought of moving to a hotel on the Dead Sea or even to Petra.  Thankfully we took the lazy way out and gave it another day.  Our hotel was fantastic - one of the best we have ever stayed in.  Pure luxury and great staff and service.  We had a driver for the next day who took us to Jerash.

Jerash is north of Amman (where we were staying). It is the ruins of an ancient city with a history back to pre-Greek period.  In fact many of the ruins date back to the Greek times and later the Romans.  Alexander the Great, came by and had his retiring soldiers settle here - bit like a retirement village.  The area was brilliant as we could wander anywhere.  No fencing, no over zealous workers telling you that you can't walk on the grass...  The structures were fantastic and in amazing condition.  Much of this had been buried in sand over the past centuries and only 'rediscovered' in the past 100 years.

The Gate to Jerash

Original Main Street Jerash

The Forum Jerash

The best thing about Jerash was the surprise of it.  Definitely worth visiting if you get to Jordan.

We used the same driver again over the next few days and visiting sights of Amman, including the Citadel which sits high on one of the hills of Amman.  Like Rome, Amman was originally built on 7 hills.  this has now extended to about 20 and growing.  The Citadel is an ancient Roman town that accommodated 200 000 people.  Again we had the opportunity to roam widely with the only interruption from local people or students visiting.  As always in Jordan, these people would ask us where we were from and after a chat, would always conclude with a welcome to Jordan and thanking us for visiting their country.  Can you imagine our young school kids whilst on an excursion, engaging tourist in conversations (maybe) and then thanking them for visiting Australian (no...).

The city is busy and everyone seems to drive - but unlike Saudi, the drivers don't think they are on a formla one track and are far calmer and the roads seemed safer. We headed to Petra for our final day - a big trip taking 3 hours.  The weather was fine with a gentle breeze, just perfect for walking into the valley to find Petra (the Valley of Moses actually - where Moses discover a natural spring critical for his tribe).  Petra lived up to the photos (and Indiana Jones and the last Crusade) but was far more extensive than we had been led to believe.  We only spent 3 hours there wandering about, but you could spend several days exploring the extensive areas that has been rediscovered over the past 100 - 130 years.  Again the city was covered by sand.

The infamous Tomb of Indiana Jones fame - Petra

 The day was long but enjoyable.  Again the surprise was the vastness of the ancient city.  Crowds were everywhere as were locals trying to make a living from the tourist through selling trinkets, offering horses, carts or camels for rides back to the entrance a few kms away.

Another carved tomb Petra

After an excellent week, we travelled back to Riyadh and Peter got to see where I have been living, working and shopping for the past 6 months.

It was wonderful to have him here and he certainly enjoyed himself.  He saw the school, albeit for a few hours ( and of course only the Boys School as the Girls school is off limits for any men).  He even took the Compound shopping bus one morning with some of the women from the Compound.  This enabled him to visit a large book store which satisfied that particular wish.  For those who know Peter, you will appreciate that a visit to book stores where ever we are is essentially part of the itinerary.

We also visited the old souk and the museum over the time here was here - both of which provide the essence of this country and culture.  Then he had the big winner of being in Riyadh during the Jenadriyah Festival.  Jenadriyadh is located on the edge of Riyadh and is a 2 week festival celebrating the cultures of the various provinces around the country.  A group of us from the team travelled out to spend a few hours with local families learning more about the cultures of KSA.  We watch men sword dancing, ate special dates, were photographed endlessly, joined in sharing coffee with representatives of various villages and generally had a wonderful time.  Alison Davis joined us as she was in Riyadh as part of her work with Pearsons (Publishers) and working in our school in the coming week.  Whilst the whole thing was like a local Show or Field Day, the joy came from meeting the people and been made to feel so welcome.

Early in the evening - note the blonde from HK!

Peter and his 4 (max) wives - plus mystery child 

Only a week before I'm home for an extended stay.  Very excited as our new grandson arrived yesterday and I'm anxious to meet him.  Another redhead!  Perhaps this time I can be a bit more useful and help practically as I won't be working.  Also get to see Audrey and Reuben who I have missed terribly. Audrey will have her 4th birthday 2 days before I arrive and Reuben will be 2 in June - so both would have grown so much since I saw them in January.

But before I leave, there is work to be completed at school.  All the new Instructional Leaders positions have been announced following an extended process of selection through application, interview and referees.  The process follows our merit based selection - unheard of in this part of the world.  This week we commence work with the new leaders (23 Girls school + 17 Boys school.  The difference in numbers is linked to the Girls school being larger in student numbers as boys stay on the Girls side from KG to Grade 2, before they go to the other side...)  The emails, phone calls and comments I have received from this new group of leaders is simply wonderful. They are so excited to be recognised and entrusted in being part of the reform agenda for the school.  

Then it will be back in August (and the heat) to work with the new leadership teams to build their capacity to lead the classroom improvement process.  Big, but exciting work to undertake.  The teachers continue to welcome and embrace the new agenda and are so excited when you visit the classroom and generally feel privileged to be involved in the coaching process.  

More excitement to come...

22 jack-hammers busy digging to the centre of the earth

Another month has nearly passed since I last added to this post. Next week the school takes a mid semester break for one week.

I am travelling to Bahrain where I will meet Peter.  After a couple of days in Bahrain - an island to the east of Saudi where many of us in days long gone, stopped to refuel on route to the UK - we fly to Amman, Jordan.  We have about 4 days in Jordan, were will will travel to Petra and see the remnants of ancient cities built by the Nabataeans.  (familiar to those who have watched the Indiana Jones movies).  Everyone who I have spoken with who has done this trip says it is truly spectacular, so we are really looking forward to the visit.  we also intend to visit the Dead Sea for a day - and perhaps partake in the ritual of covering ourselves in dead sea mud then bathing in the sea.  It is supposed to be a wonderful sensation and be good for you, but stings badly if you have any cuts or abrasions.  Following Jordan, we head back to Riyadh, where Peter will spend a couple of weeks before flying home.  This should give him a taste of Saudi life and the wealth of the Kingdom - and a few visits to the huge Malls that provide every designer label known in the Western world.

School is busy a the moment as we progress through to the next phase of the leadership restructure in readiness for the next academic year. 40 positions for instructional leaders have been open for application and close tomorrow.  These positions will have a strong role in coaching the classroom teacher along with a reduced teaching load for themselves.  The role replaces positions of Supervisors.  Supervisors were like faculty/subject heads.  They didn't have a teaching component to their role, but had a role in maintaining their subject was taught in adherence to the curriculum.  They also monitored teacher performance.  If a teacher wasn't good, she/he was not employed the following year.  If they deemed the teacher very poor they provided formal feedback that their performance was less than 90% satisfactory and this saw the teacher dismissed immediately.  However this didn't mean that the school had a staff of excellent teachers.  It the teacher's subject area was one that was difficult to recruit a teacher may receive a performance score of 90% so that they could remain until the end of the semester when the school would look to recruit at a more convenient time in the year.  Supervisors saw themselves above principals, and some may have been in receipt of a salary that reinforced this thinking.  Under the new structure we have principals, vice principals, instructional leaders and soon to be introduced expert teachers - then of course teachers.  All teachers will receive a contract of between 3 - 5 years.  Up until this change, all teachers have a yearly contract.  Some have worked in the school for over 20 years and have never had job security, so this is a welcomed initiative.  There has been up to 300% difference in pay at EACH level of employment.  It just depended upon who you knew and who are your friends in positions of influence.

Trying to explain (and justify) merit based selection has been a challenge, but we are getting there.

A couple of weekends ago several of us went to the Riyadh Museum.  It was fantastic and worth trying to find it with a driver who can't read a map!  The museum has a number of permanent exhibitions along with temporary visiting exhibitions from around the middle east.  One exhibition explored the history of civilisation in this area - including the Nabateaens.  Made me recall Year 12 History of Western Civilisation.  A timeline over 10 000 years included Abraham, Moses, Alexander (the great), the Romans, Jesus and the Prophet.

Another exhibition displayed the two mosques of critical importance to the Kingdom and the Islamic faith - the Mosque at Makkah and the Mosque at Medina. As non believers we can't visit either of these
cities, so being able to see huge models of both buildings was great.  I have seen footage of them and photos, and they look amazing, but the scale must be truly inspiring.  The mosque at Makkah includes the Ka'bah.  This is the large black box structure in the courtyard of the mosque that the pilgrims making Hajj walk around as part of the ritual.  This box contains a meteorite thought to have hit the earth tens of thousands of years ago.  It has virtually being worshipped since.  Abraham is said to have lived near this at one stage and also participated in the pilgrimage.  Makkah has been an important city for thousands of years, being on the trade routes.  It has been a strategic city for those in power and Mohammed returned to Makkah after living in Medina following his deportation 30 years previous.  He wanted it to confirm his status as leader of the Muslim world.    The photos are of the models in the Museum and some information explaining some of the features.

The jackhammers still progress on the site outside the compound and outside my bedroom window.  I have only one day in the week that there is no work - Fridays.  There are now 22 working from 6:00 - 4:00 daily.  They have gone down about 10m and seem to be no end in sight.  No sleep-in for me on thursdays (the first day of our weekend).

Hope you are finding this post of some interest and sharing it with anyone who you think may enjoy the ramble.

Ka'bah at Makkah Mosque in the 1930s

The Prophet's Mosque - Medina

Mosque at Makkah (you can see the Ka'bah in the courtyard)